Anthony Francis "Tony" Buhagiar (born 3 October 1955) is a retired

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). A pint-sized

rover Rover may refer to: People * Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian * Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer * Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist Places * Rover, Arkansas, US * Rover, Missouri, US * ...

, he made his senior debut for

West Australian National Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

club

East Fremantle East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

in the earlier 1970s as a free-spirited 16-year-old. By 1979 he had become a premiership player, represented Western Australia at state of origin and gained

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

selection. In 1981 he crossed the

Nullarbor Plain The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of , 'no', and , 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its ...

and joined Victorian Football League club

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...

. One of only three players to debut for the Bombers that year he had an immediate impact on his new team kicking 42 goals to be their leading goalkicker, winning their best first-year player award, coming third in ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

''s player of the year award, and eighth in the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

. He was also a member of Essendon's night premiership, a mid-week knockout competition played on a Tuesday night during the season. As his career with Essendon progressed, the awards continued to flow including being the team's leading vote getter in the 1982 Brownlow Medal, most determined player in 1983 and state selection again in 1984. Although small in stature (166 cm and 74 kg), the courageous rover/goalsneak became a crowd favourite and was affectionately known as "The Budgie". In his four years with Essendon, Buhagiar played in seven finals games and was among the team's best players in five of them, proving his reliability in big games. He was a part of Essendon's ill-fated 1983

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

team, which suffered the biggest loss in grand final history until that time. Essendon were to avenge their defeat in the following year's grand final, but it was to be without the "Budgie", who, after an injury interrupted season, was named only as an emergency. Disappointed at having missed the Premiership, Buhagiar decided to return home to East Fremantle, but was talked into resurrecting his VFL career with Footscray. He played the 1985 season with the Bulldogs, which include three more finals, and finished the season with a handy 36 goals. He returned to East Fremantle in 1986. Buhagiar was a board member of the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of ...

from 2000 until 2009.President Rick Hart to stand down

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buhagiar, Tony Essendon Football Club players Western Bulldogs players East Fremantle Football Club players Western Australian State of Origin players All-Australians (1953–1988) 1955 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia Fremantle Football Club administrators Australian people of Maltese descent